Bootcamp partition not recognized by Windows XP

Hi, I have been using MAC for a long time now. I have a Imac G4 which runs on Mac OSX 10.4. I wanted to install Windows Xp operating system on the computer so i installed Bootcamp utility. I created a separate partition of 20gb for the Windows installation. After creation if the partition the Windows Setup started but Windows XP is not detecting the Partition i created using Bootcamp Instead it shows a partitions which i didnt create. I am not able to install the Windows because of this problem. If any one has a solution, please let me know.

The problem is with the bootcamp version you are using. Earlier versions of Bootcamp utility had many bugs which resulted in the Whole hard disk getting corrupted. If such a version is used to create partition for Windows, it shows that the partition is successfully created but the operating system does not detects the partition. I will suggest you to create the partition using some other versions of bootcamp utility and see if the Windows setup detects it or not.

Bootcamp utility is not recommended by Apple and hence should not be used. Bootcamp utilities has many flaws which can make your whole system crash. Sometimes the partition created by the utility takes up all the hard disk space and deletes all the existing partitions on the hard drive. Therefore care should be taken while creating the partition using Bootcamp as it may lead to data loss. Once the partition created by bootcamp takes up all the hard disk space then the only way to get the hard disk working is by completely formatting it.

I would suggest you to delete the partition which you have made. After deleting the partition, format the space with Mac system format. Once the drive is formatted using MAC system format, then run the BOOTCAMP utility and start creating the partition again. Becareful while selecting the hard drive space while creating the partition as by default the whole hard disk space is selected for conversion. Put the exact value which you want for installing windows. Dont start any applications while the partition is being created. Once the partition is created, installer will detect the partition and install windows on it.

To check if the Windows partition is created or not. Boot the Imac using OSX operating system. While the operating system is booting, Press and hold the C key. Now the system will show all the partitions which are available on the hard disk. Check if the partition created by bootcamp is seen or not. If the partition is created properly then it will be seen. If the partition is not created properly then it wont be seen. If the partition is not visible then you will have to delete and then create it again using bootcamp. Otherwise you can directly install Windows operating system on the partition created using bootcamp.

Thank you all for replying to my problem so quickly. I was using the Bootcamp Version 2.0 which was creating problem while detection of partition. I installed a new version of 3.0 using which i created partition and successfully installed Windows XP on it.